JCP.next Public Review

Oracle continues to work towards a new version of the JCP, dubbed JCP.next, as part of JSR 348. Earlier this week, it released the first public review of its new proposals at the existing JCP site. As this is a public review, comments are invited up until 12th September.

As well as the project page and mailing lists, there is a publicly viewable JIRA issue tracker, which anyone can view or raise bugs against. There is also a newly created forum which can be used to post general questions off-list.

Oracle notes that this initial version of JSR 348 is expected to conclude by October 2011, with a subsequent version updating the JSPA to reflect reality:

This JSR will focus on relatively simple changes that can be implemented quickly (we hope to finish before October 2011) whereas the second JSR - which will be filed soon - will tackle more complex issues, including any necessary changes to the JSPA.

Since one of the main themes of JSR 348 is transparency, and since it will require that future JSRs be run in a transparent manner, the Expert Group has committed to running this JSR according to those requirements.

The main improvements to the JCP at this stage are to improve transparency by requiring, rather than suggesting, that the development is done on open mailing lists and issue trackers. It also aims to bring down the amount of time taken to push a JCP through to completion. However, this version of the JCP.next will not solve the key problems with the licensing debates over Java itself.